Review: Between the Lines

If anyone knew how many times Delilah McPhee had read and reread the kids’ fairy tale she found in the library, she’d be sent to social Siberia forever. But to Delilah, the story is more than just words on a page. Sure, there’s the traditional handsome (okay, hot) prince, beautiful princess, evil villain, and fire-breathing dragon, but it feels like there’s something deeper going on. And there is – as Delilah discovers when an illustration of Prince Oliver starts to talk to her. A certain Reader has caught the prince’s eye – but he’s trapped in a book. How will it ever work?

Review:

I am kicking myself for making this a workout book. There’s a finite number of books that will stay open on the elliptical machine, and this was one of them. So I only got to read a couple chapters every day.

I did not appreciate that. Because once I got into the book, I didn’t want to stop reading.

Delilah was a whole lot like me – or at least me if my dad left and I went to public school. Quiet, not super popular, kind of geeky, obsessed with books. She had one of those quiet personalities that, while not remarkable, was definitely relatable (at least for me). And I can totally sympathize with falling in love with a fictional character.

Oliver was exactly what you’d expect a fairy tale prince to be – handsome, courteous, sweet, caring, selfless…. In fact, there’s a very good chance that he could be accused of being perfect. Even when he made mistakes, he did it perfectly. But somehow, when I was reading through the book, I didn’t mind.

Normally, I’d mention a few of the more minor characters, but there really weren’t any that played a big enough part to be mentioned. Delilah spent most of her time alone, and Oliver was rarely with the same character twice.

Normally, I don’t go for the romance-oriented plots. And while the main plot of this book is to get Oliver out of the fairy tale, the romance between Oliver and Delilah is both the motivation for the main plot and an only slightly-less-main plot. I enjoyed this book purely because I’ve fallen in love with fictional characters before, and I’ve wished they could come out of the book.

This was an enjoyable, light-hearted book with a very fairy-tale feel. It made me nostalgic for the fairy tales I loved as a kid, and it made me wish something like what happened to Delilah would happen to me.